Former CBS News evp of news Kim Godwin steps into the role of ABC News president today.
Godwin’s official start comes exactly one week after Neeraj Khemlani and Wendy McMahon started as presidents and co-heads of CBS News and CBS Television Stations.
Godwin is ABC News’ ninth president since 1953, its first woman president, its first Black president, and the second Black woman to be named a president of a major TV news outlet in 2021, with Rashida Jones officially taking the lead of MSNBC this past February.
Most recently the second-highest-ranking executive at CBS News, Godwin served as a news director at a number of different local stations across the country before joining CBS News in 2007 as a senior producer on the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley. She would later be promoted to senior broadcast producer on the CBS Evening News, and was eventually named the network’s executive vice president of news. Godwin also served as the interim ep of The CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell before the newscast moved to Washington D.C., and former Situation Room ep Jay Shaylor took the reins on a permanent basis in 2019.
Godwin has also served as CBS News’ executive director for development and diversity during her time at the network.
The longtime television news executive and journalist steps into a pretty favorable situation, jumping from a third place network (in the mornings and evenings) to the the most-watched network. Good Morning America averages the largest total audience of any morning show, and World News Tonight averages the largest total audience and most adults aged 25-54 of any evening newscast. WNT is also one of the most-watched programs on all of TV.
One of Godwin’s first major decisions as ABC News president will be to choose the next executive in charge of Good Morning America. The morning show’s senior ep (and a longtime ABC News exec) Michael Corn left the network shortly after Godwin was named the next ABC News president.
Will the next senior ep of GMA be an internal or an external hire? Remains to be seen.
Here’s Godwin speaking to staff on her first day:
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